16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
ecclesiastics and four governors being
already wholly committed to us, together
with those for whom they speak;
while the officers in command of the
regiments that must be moved are tolerably
venal men, and we have ample
funds at hand. Yet at the same time certain
forms must still be observed: there
must be persuasion, a gentle violence,
before they can decently fall.
We are to have a preliminary meeting
without these gentlemen on Wednesday
to arrange the details of payment and
to decide whether Castro should be invited
to the main conference on Friday.
He is being very discreetly sounded at
this moment, in the palace itself: the
empty palace, for the Viceroy is hurrying
to quell a disturbance in far northern
Peru. He left with his military house-